Hydrology Commons^™

A Comparison Of Fuel Reduction Methods For Wildfire Risk Management And Climate Change Resiliency In Mixed Conifer Forests In The Sierra Nevada, Heather Navle

Master's Projects and Capstones

Wildfires in the mixed conifer forests of California’s Sierra Nevada have been a common and natural disturbance for thousands of years, historically occurring every 3 to 30 years. The flora and fauna of the mixed conifer forest have evolved to depend on low to moderate severity wildfires for reproduction, foraging, and habitat. However, the Sierra Nevada has experienced dramatic environmental changes over the past ~150 years as a result of three main factors: wildfire suppression, climate change, and habitat loss. Because of the threat wildfires pose to human lives, property and timber harvest, they have been suppressed to an extent …

Year Long Water Quality Analysis Of White Horn Brook, Kevin Dyer

Senior Honors Projects

KEVIN DYER (Marine Biology)

Year-long Analysis of the Water Quality of White Horn Brook

Sponsor: Thomas Boving (Geological Sciences)

Water is the foundation for all life on earth and is the most vital resource on this planet. Despite this, oceans and waterways all over the world are being polluted and exploited in ways detrimental to their fundamental hydrologic functions. For instance, excess nitrate levels can lead to eutrophication which gives rise to harmful algae blooms. Low pH can cause the breakdown of CaCO3 exoskeletons of organisms, such mollusks. High temperature variations are major stressors to living things and can cause …

Impact Of Agricultural Land Use On Stream Nitrate, Phosphorus, And Sediment Concentrations At The Watershed And Field Scale, Brittany A. Kirsch

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Water quality is directly impacted by the landscape through which it travels. As such, land use, including summer annual and winter annual/perennial agriculture, has dramatic influence on the water quality of downstream aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. I examined the impact of agricultural land use on water quality through two projects, one at a watershed scale and one at a field scale. In my first project, I investigated the impact of agricultural land use and climate on water quality in 13 HUC10 watersheds across Nebraska using public data from US Geological Survey (USGS), US Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service …

Hydroponic And Soilless Culture Systems And Transplant Practices Influence Production Of Basil (Omicum Basilicum L.), Samuel Warren Edward Doty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two controlled-environment greenhouse experiments evaluated (1) plant growth and morphology of basil (Omicum basilicum L.) grown in three different hydroponic and soilless substrate systems and (2) seedling tray cell-count and transplant date into hydroponic culture effects on basil growth and yield at harvest. For the first experiment, four basil cultivars (‘Genovese’, ‘Mrs. Burns Lemon’, ‘Sweet Thai’, and ‘Cinnamon’) were grown in deep flow technique (DFT) hydroponics, nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics, and a novel shallow aggregate ebb-and-flood (SAEF) soilless substrate system and were harvested after 21 d. Plant yield and morphological characteristics measured at harvest included shoot fresh mass, shoot …

Physical And Biological Factors Controlling The Fate Of Nitrate In A Louisiana Coastal Deltaic Floodplain, Alexandra Christensen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi River Delta is threatened by a growing pressure to support large human populations in the United States both with food production, navigation systems, and urban development in the Mississippi River Basin. Nitrate-nitrogen load in the Mississippi River, up to 100 Tg N yr^-1 from agricultural and urban runoff, leads to phytoplankton blooms and hypoxia across the Louisiana continental shelf, creating dead zones of low dissolved oxygen threatening a significant commercial fishery. Along the coast and river corridors, floodplain ecosystems have the capacity to retain and remove nitrate. This dissertation explores the role of productive, actively growing coastal …

Changing Water Resources’ Effect On Livelihoods And Socio-Ecological Relationships In Himalayan Communities Of Nepal, Luke Bazemore

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The looming threat of climate change will lead to significant alterations in livelihoods and daily practices for individuals across the world. This paper seeks to identify the effects of climate change on hydrological regimes in Himalayan communities in Nepal with particular focus towards livelihood and socio-ecological transformations. Using the socio-ecological systems framework to analyze specific communities and their resource use, along with vulnerability and adaptative capacity analysis, this paper includes a meta-analysis of existing literature. Numerous findings indicated that rural, mountainous communities of Nepal face a variety of environmental impacts which may reduce viability of two significant modes of production: …

Presence Of Glyphosate In First Order Streams Associated With Rainfall Events, Julie Platz

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Glyphosate is widely used in the United States and has recently been described as both mobile and persistent in soils and bodies of water. There is little research however, on the variability of glyphosate concentration in runoff based on different land use types. For this study an evaluation of samples from different land uses are used to assess glyphosate concentrations in first order streams during a runoff event. The intent was to compare three sites with a. known commercial applications, b. known lack of applications (organic), and c. assumed limited application of glyphosate. There was no significant difference in glyphosate …

A Survey Of Fish Parasites From Pangani Catchment And Lake Kitangiri In Singida, Tanzania, Fred D. Chibwana, Johnson G. Mshana, Jestina V. Katandukila

Tanzania Journal of Science

Inland water fisheries are a significant source of dietary protein to human populations, and consequently they are essential economic activities worldwide. However, both natural waters and aquaculture systems, which form the freshwater fisheries are faced with a problem of fish parasitic diseases which may result in reduced productivity and market value. The present study, therefore, carried out a survey on fish parasites from the Pangani catchment (Nyumba ya Mungu dam and Lake Jipe) and Lake Kitangiri in Singida Region in Tanzania to seal the gap of occurrence, diversity and abundance of helminths. Three species of fish viz. 111 African sharptooth …

The Ecology And Conservation Of An Urban Karst Subterranean Estuary, Robert J. Scharping

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sulphur Springs is an artesian spring and part of the limestone karst topography of metropolitan Tampa, Florida, USA. Underlying this spring is an extensive cave system that hosts saltwater vents and conspicuous microbial biofilm communities. For decades, water from Sulphur Springs has been extracted and used to supplement public water supply and dry season flows in the Hillsborough River Estuary. This dissertation describes research conducted at Sulphur Springs to determine the impacts of urban land use on the underlying cave and downstream estuary ecosystems, and presents the use of this system as a model to fill certain ecological knowledge gaps. …

Influence Of Forest-To-Silvopasture Conversion And Drought On Components Of Evapotranspiration, Adam P. Coble, Alexandra R. Contosta, Richard G. Smith, Nathan W. Siegert, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Katie A. Jennings, Anthony J. Stewart, Heidi Asbjornsen

Natural Resources & the Environment

The northeastern U.S. is projected to experience more frequent short-term (1-2 month) droughts interspersed among larger precipitation events. Agroforestry practices such as silvopasture may mitigate these impacts of climate change while maintaining economic benefits of both agricultural and forestry practices. This study evaluated the effects of forest-to-silvopasture (i.e., 50% thinning) conversion on the components of evapotranspiration (transpiration, rainfall interception, and soil evaporation) during the growing season of 2016. The study coincided with a late-summer drought throughout the northeastern U.S., which allowed us to also evaluate the effects of forest-to-silvopasture conversion on drought responses of multiple tree species, including Pinus strobus, …

Hydrogeology Of The Gillingarra Palaeochannel, Russell Speed, Adele Killen

Resource management technical reports

Previous groundwater investigations had identified the presence of palaeochannel sediments under the Capitela Valley in the Perth Basin, about 25 kilometres south-west of Moora. The sediments of this Capitela Palaeochannel were thought to form a discrete aquifer of good quality groundwater suitable for agriculture.

To improve our understanding of the Capitela Palaeochannel, its distribution, water quality and potential as a groundwater resource, we undertook an airborne electromagnetic (AEM) geophysical survey of the area in December 2012. This led to the discovery of a palaeochannel located in the Darling Range between Gillingarra and New Norcia, and we named this the Gillingarra …

Transforming Agriculture In The Pilbara: Processing Airborne Electromagnetic (Aem) Data, Aaron C. Davis, Mike Donn, John A. Simons, Christopher Schelfhout Dr, Olga Barron

Natural resources commissioned reports

This report focusses on pre-processing, inversion, and post-processing of airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data from a SkyTEM 312M helicopter-borne time-domain AEM survey conducted north of Newman, Western Australia in October and November 2019. Flight lines for the survey were chosen to trend east-west at 400 m line-spacing in order to produce gridded products at 100 m by 100 m resolution. The line directions were chosen in order to best intersect the Fortescue River Fault which separates the Wittenoom Formation from the Pinjian Chert Formation and Manganese Group, and to map the distribution of transported materials in the alluvial fan north of …

2020 Sponsorship Opportunities. Lincoln, Neb., Usa, Oct. 7-9, 2020

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Administrative Materials

The Water for Food Global Conference convenes leading international experts and organizations to focus on achieving global water and food security. “Cultivating Innovation: The Next Decade,” will include keynote speakers, sessions, interactive learning and networking opportunities. The conference also celebrates the 10 year anniversary of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, headlining a week of water and food security-related activities.

Topics include: • Research and Technology Innovation • Policy/Management Tools and Best Practices • Capacity Development/Youth and Students • Water Quality and Public Health • Climate Change and Ecosystems • Women for Water and Food • Nutrition and Health …

Assessing The Climate Water Balance Model’S Ability To Predict Soil Moisture Variability And Species Distribution Of A Forested Watershed In The Northern Cumberland Plateau, Katherine J. Love

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Spatial patterns of moisture and tree species have been studied using environmental gradients, often represented by terrain attributes in GIS. With climate change, GIS terrain variables, which are static as long as the elevation remains unchanged, will not reflect alterations in temperature, water cycle, and atmospheric conditions. In this thesis, the commonly used terrain variables and climate water balance variables were evaluated and compared for their ability to explain soil moisture and tree species distributions in a forested watershed in the Northern Cumberland Plateau. The results suggest that GIS terrain variables generally perform better than climate water balance variables, however, …

Sampling The Local Fare: Fishes At The Sam Israel House Pit (45gr76), Soap Lake, Washington, Adam Fruge

All Master's Theses

The Sam Israel site is a precontact archaeological complex with numerous fish bones at the north end of Soap Lake, Washington. Excavated in 1976, the fish remains recovered from there were never fully analyzed prior to this research. Since this inland Columbia Plateau site had thousands of fish bones, it contained untapped potential for our understanding of ancient local fish procurement. As such, I conducted a detailed analysis of 2,862 fish bone specimens from the Sam Israel House Pit locus to: study a larger sample of fish bones in greater detail than was done before; compare the distribution of fishes …

Evaluation Of The Relationship Between Land Use And Water Quality In Kittitas County, Wa, Lindsay Schulz

All Master's Theses

Water in Kittitas County is extremely valuable since it supports farming, recreation, and cultural activities, as well as environmental processes and a diversity of biological life while providing many ecosystem services. However, land conversions required by agricultural and urban land uses can negatively impact water quality and the biological function of the stream. I studied how forested, agricultural, and urban land use affect six streams. Fourteen sites were sampled, once each in July, August, and September 2019. Land use was calculated as a percentage of forested, agricultural, and urban land use within a 100-m buffer of the stream, upstream of …

Assessing The Hierarchy Of Long-Term Environmental Controls On Diatom Communities Of Yellowstone National Park Using Lacustrine Sediment Records, Victoria Chraibi, Sherilyn C. Fritz

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

An ecosystem’s ability to maintain structure and function following disturbance, defined as resilience, is influenced by a hierarchy of environmental controls, including climate, surface cover, and ecological relationships that shape biological community composition and productivity. This study examined lacustrine sediment records of naturally fishless lakes in Yellowstone National Park to reconstruct the response of aquatic communities to climate and trophic cascades from fish stocking. Sediment records of diatom algae did not exhibit a distinct response to fish stocking in terms of assemblage or algal productivity. Instead, 3 of 4 lakes underwent a shift to dominance by benthic diatom species from …

Water Sourcing Strategies Of Highly Resilient Vegetation In Desert Soils: Stable Isotope Analysis Of A Northern Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem, Hayden Eleanor Thompson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Plant water use strategies and water transport dynamics are important for understanding ecosystem productivity and soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions within an environment (Li et al., 2007). Recent research using stable isotope analysis in wet and humid climates has found that vegetation uses tightly particle-bound water stored in the soil that does not participate in translatory flow (Brooks et al., 2010; Goldsmith et al., 2011; McDonnell 2014). In arid and semi-arid deserts of the United States, highly resilient vegetation, such as the Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and the Creosote shrub (Larrea tridentata), exhibit some degree of activity year-round despite limited water availability during …

Aquatic Plants And Their Application To Successful Floating Treatment Wetlands, Katherine May Mazanec

Masters Theses

“This research aims to mitigate eutrophication of freshwater habitats affected by urban stormwater runoff. Two highly impacted urban ponds near the Missouri S&T campus in Rolla were the focus of this research on the application of floating treatment wetlands (FTWs). An FTW consists of a man-made floating mat that is planted with emergent or floating macrophytes. The plants grow on the mat and their roots extend into the water column below the mat. Plant tissues, especially roots in direct contact with the water, take up nutrients, act as biofilm growth sites, and may facilitate precipitation of nutrients. With urbanization, ponds …

The Role Of Warm, Dry Summers And Variation In Snowpack On Phytoplankton Dynamics In Mountain Lakes, Isabella A. Olesky, Whitney S. Beck, Roderick W. Lammers, Cara E. Steger, Codie Wilson, Kyle R. Christianson, Kim Vincent, Gunnar Forrest Johnson, Pieter T.J. Johnson, Jill S. Baron

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Climate change is altering biogeochemical, metabolic, and ecological functions in lakes across the globe. Historically, mountain lakes in temperate regions have been unproductive because of brief ice-free seasons, a snowmelt-driven hydrograph, cold temperatures, and steep topography with low vegetation and soil cover. We tested the relative importance of winter and summer weather, watershed characteristics, and water chemistry as drivers of phytoplankton dynamics. Using boosted regression tree models for 28 mountain lakes in Colorado, we examined regional, intraseasonal, and interannual drivers of variability in chlorophyll a as a proxy for lake phytoplankton. Phytoplankton biomass was inversely related to the maximum snow …

Internet Of Things For Sustainable Forestry, Abdul Salam

Computer Information Technology Faculty Publications

Forests and grasslands play an important role in water and air purification, prevention of the soil erosion, and in provision of habitat to wildlife. Internet of Things has a tremendous potential to play a vital role in the forest ecosystem management and stability. The conservation of species and habitats, timber production, prevention of forest soil degradation, forest fire prediction, mitigation, and control can be attained through forest management using Internet of Things. The use and adoption of IoT in forest ecosystem management is challenging due to many factors. Vast geographical areas and limited resources in terms of budget and equipment …

Leaf Angle And Leaf Stomata Responses To Experimental Drought In Quercus Velutina And Acer Saccharum, Brittany Nichole Casey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The possibility of increased severity and frequency of drought conditions, as a result of global climate variability, greatly complicates our ability to forecast future forest functions such as productivity and carbon sequestration. Assessing how tree species vary in their response to drought can aid in predicting the impact on forest ecosystems as a whole. Throughfall exclusion (TfE) experiments are potentially useful tools to simulate realistic drought conditions within intact forest ecosystems. We employed a TfE experiment during the 2018 growing season within the WV Land Trust’s Elizabeth’s Woods Nature Preserve, near Morgantown, WV, to assess the leaf angle and leaf …

Mammals Inventory Of The Kihansi River Gorge In Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania, Dennis K. Ikanda, Samuel N. Mtoka, Mustafa Hassanali, Anna Mshanga

Tanzania Journal of Science

The Kihansi gorge montane forest in Udzungwa Mountains forms part of the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) which contain some of the most biologically diverse and endemic montane ecosystems in all of Africa. The Kihansi river gorge was opened up for hydroelectric development in the late 1990s, attracting hundreds of farming communities whose activities lead to environmental degradation and hence presumed biodiversity loss in the montane forest which is not understood. Using camera traps, an inventory of mammals of the area was conducted for 24 consecutive days. About 14 mammal species were photo captured, indicating diverse assemblage of large and medium …

Crop Pests, Control Measures And Potential Impacts In Kihansi Catchment Area, Beatrice Pallangyo, K. Mdily, C. Mkondo, A. Kibola

Tanzania Journal of Science

A baseline survey which covered 349 households in Bomang’ombe and Masisiwe (Kilolo district), Kibengu and Mapanda (Mufindi district) and Chita and Chisano (Kilombero district) was conducted to identify major pests, control measures and potential impacts in Kihansi catchment area. Maize was the most predominant crop being cultivated by 55% of the total respondents in all the study districts. Pests and diseases were the major constraints to crop production, whereby cereal stem borers were the most serious pests being reported by 88.2% of respondents. Application of synthetic pesticides was the major pest control measure, being applied by 66% of the respondents. …

Research Work And Conservation Initiatives In The Kihansi Catchment Ecosystem, Tanzania, Cl Nahonyo

Tanzania Journal of Science

Keynote Address  for the Scientific Conference on Research and Conservation Initiatives in the Kihansi Catchment Ecosystem: Successes, Challenges and Way forward held at the National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) on 24 – 27 July 2017.

Groundwater Chemistry And Salinity Processes In The Myalup Region, Adam M. Lillicrap, Richard J. George Dr

Resource management technical reports

The Myalup region, which incorporates the Myalup Irrigated Agriculture Precinct (MIAP), is located about 100 kilometres south of Perth between the southern end of Lake Clifton and the northern tip of the Leschenault Inlet. It covers 17 800 hectares, with about 2100ha being irrigated. The precinct produces mainly carrots, onions, potatoes and leafy vegetables. In 2016–17, the total value of agricultural production for the MIAP, including on-farm processing and packaging, was more than $120 million.

Irrigation water is mainly from the surficial Myalup aquifer, with limited abstraction from the underlying Leederville aquifer. Average annual rainfall is about 800 millimetres, but …

Groundwater Investigations To Support Irrigated Agriculture At La Grange, Western Australia: 2013–18 Results, Robert J. Paul, Gregory Paul Raper, Richard J. George Dr, Nicholas J. Wright, Adam M. Lillicrap, Peter S. Gardiner

Resource management technical reports

The Broome Sandstone aquifer is the main aquifer and groundwater resource in the La Grange area, near Broome in the West Kimberley, Western Australia. Land use is dominated by cattle grazing on pastoral stations, dispersed mining and tourism. Irrigated agriculture has developed at a small scale, with about 470 hectares under cultivation in 2014. Groundwater abstraction is licensed under the La Grange groundwater allocation plan (Department of Water 2010) and managed by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. The La Grange groundwater allocation area is split into the La Grange North subarea and La Grange South subarea, with groundwater …

Vegetation Classification And Mapping, Missouri National Recreational River, Tom Baldvins, Matt Ley, David Jones, Joe Stevens, Hannah Pilkington

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The vegetation inventory project at Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR) classified and mapped vegetation within the park administrative boundary and estimated thematic map accuracy quantitatively. The project was conducted over a four year period from the summer of 2015 to the winter of 2019.

The project follows guidance provided by the National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Mapping Inventory (VMI) Program. The overall process includes initial planning and scoping, imagery procurement, field data collection, data analysis, imagery interpretation and classification, and accuracy assessment. The initial planning and scoping meetings to support study plan development took place in December, 2009, …

Effects Of Water Table Depth And Edaphic Characteristics On Plant Diversity In A Southern Mississippi Pitcher Plant Bog, Patrick Kirby

Master's Theses

This study examined the effects that water table depth and soil characteristics have on plant species richness and species composition within pitcher plant bogs across seasons. Eight piezometers were installed at random distances to monitor long-term water table depth and pressure fluctuations along a ~710-meter line transect traversing upland and bog habitats. Vegetation sampling quadrats (n=128) were set up near each piezometer. Cover data and water table depths were collected in spring and late summer. Soil samples collected from each treatment group were used to obtain soil texture and nutrient data. The summer collection period yielded a total gdiversity of …

The Peculiar Nature Of Florida’S Sandhill Wetlands, Ponds & Lakes— Their Ecohydrology, Relationship With The Regional Aquifer & Importance Within The Landscape., Renae Starr Nowicki

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the ecohydrology of Florida’s peculiar and poorly studied sandhill wetland and water features, particularly those located in west-central Florida. The primary research goals include: compilation and summarization of the available ecohydrologic information for features across Florida; comparison of water level and water geochemistry data between sandhill wetlands and waters and the regional aquifer to provide evidence of regional hydrologic control; and use of geophysical applications to examine the hydraulic connections between sandhill wetlands and waters and the regional aquifer.

From this research, a natural history of sandhill wetland and water ecohydrology is presented, highlighting: the differences between …